The shockwave ca, and even the giant rock wasn’t enough to stop Vale from getting blown away. Debris filled the air and the nearby trees had lost their leaves.
It lasted for a few seconds before the winds settled down. Vale tried to get up and orient himself, but the world was covered in dust, making it hard to see anything. He spat out a handful of sand that had found its way into his mouth and contemplated his next move.
He could use the dust as a cover to run away, but the chances of that working were most likely in the negative.
Anyone above the second tier could sense with more than their eyes; the only thing running away would do was get their attention. His best bet right now was to lie silently on the floor and try to breathe as little as possible.
Hopefully, Athena was still alive and capable of fighting.
From the looks of things, it shouldn’t be hard for her to escape the man as they were both almost evenly matched. But it seed she had other ideas.
Not long after, the dust settled and Vale’s visibility returned.
Not far from him was a crater, over a hundred tres wide. But that wasn’t what made him sigh in relief, it was the bloodied lady in the sky that made that happen.
Athena was clearly still alive, although whether she could still fight was the major question.
There was sothing Vale noticed though. Athena looked smaller than usual, although that was probably just an effect of the distance between them. Still, he couldn’t shake off the weird thought.
She had nurous wounds covering her body and all her clones were gone. In her hand was the three-dinsional cage she had woven. Or at least a part of it—it was already broken.
But she didn’t look anxious; rather, a small, light smile was plastered on her face.
The sickly old man then walked out of the crater, and even Vale couldn’t help but look over.
If the man was a corpse before then he was now a badly preserved corpse. Just the sight of him alone was enough to make any ordinary person puke.
His upper body seed to have gone through literally hell as there was barely any skin on it. Just bare bones.
His internal organs were visible, and lumps of red at were glued to parts of his also red skeleton. His face was better preserved, and one could still make out patches of skin, although badly damaged.
Then his mouth opened and he spoke. "You released the barrier at the last minute, forcing to take the brunt of my own attack. Smart."
His voice had sohow beco worse and it grated on Vale’s eardrums.
"But there’s sothing I do not understand?"
Athena was still in the sky, and one could see her body clearly recovering. That was why she didn’t attack; her body needed ti to heal too.
"How—how did you make my attack harm ? It shouldn’t be possible for my own attack to cause harm, how did you do it? How!!"
Her lips curled in a smirk. "Maybe if you were to spend another thousand years in the prison plane you’ll understand."
After saying that, Athena snapped her fingers causing a rift to appear beside the man.
Imdiately, the rift tried sucking him in with imnse force.
"No, I can’t go back there. Not again, not again!" The man scread like a lunatic, desperately trying to escape the rift. But he was clearly too weak.
Then as if realising his fate, he stopped struggling and started laughing.
"I didn’t think a child like you would push this far. But I’d rather die than go back there," the man said with a hint of resentnt. "Blood Sacrifice: Crimson Death."
Instantly, the man’s bones began to glow red, his flesh began to bulge, and it also took on that crimson hue.
The mont the rift sucked him a great explosion resounded from within the rift. The sheer force of it caused the ground to rumble for a good minute. Thankfully, it wasn’t in this world; if it had been, the shock wave would have rocked even Druti.
Vale let out a sigh of relief and slumped onto the floor. It was finally over, the bastard was finally dead.
Athena, who was in the air, fell towards the ground, now completely spent.
She landed with a loud thud, causing her further injuries. But she couldn’t be bothered about that now. With great effort, she lifted her head and looked at the still-open rift. "Close," she said, expecting the portal to disappear. But it didn’t.
A frown ford on her face as the rift kept pulsing. "Close," she said again, but still no result.
"Oh no." Her voice, this ti around, was filled with apprehension.
The explosion had not only severed her connection to the rift, but it also caused a chain reaction in that area making the space unstable. And the effects of that would be quite evident in a mont.
Just then, nurous rifts opened each carrying intense sucking power.
Athena was already too spent to try to escape, and Vale wasn’t even aware of what was going on.
Athena still tried to resist, but if she used any more mana it would affect her core directly and she would be at risk of receiving permanent damage.
The best she could do was form a small barrier that encompassed her and Vale, whom she had caught before he got confused.
He was confused for a mont, but as soon as he realised what was going on, all he could do was curse out loud.
In an instant, both of them were sucked into the largest rift, disappearing into the darkness beyond.
The other rifts sucked so other dead bodies and other things, but it wasn’t long before the world started repairing itself. Soon all the rifts closed except for the first rift Athena had opened.
"Good thing I didn’t kill everyone," a voice ca from within the rift. At that sa ti, a translucent orb ca out from the rift and headed towards one of the bodies lying around.
Jack, who had been knocked unconscious by one of the attacks, had no idea that his body had been invaded by a millennium-old demon.
______
End of Volu 1" Arc 1—New Beginnings.
[ Small Infinity here, if you thought this arc was any good. Kindly support with gifts, power stones and golden tickets.]
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